MetroGTi's blog View Details
Posted by MetroGTi | Dec 23, 2012 @ 12:08 PM | 14,680 Views
I've got a Maximat V10 lathe/mill combo in my shop. A few weeks ago the gears in the milling head gave out. As the machine was built in the 1960's, replacement parts are non-existent.

The two gears that gave out were the same size, and were made from a plastic/fiber composite similar to phenolic. After quite a bit of searching I found a suitable stainless steel gear blank (Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instruments: S12N15M024S1016) that had the correct pitch angle and tooth count, and could be modified to replace the damaged plastic gears.

The new gear was 2mm too thick, and needed a larger hub diameter with a step. I made an aluminum "collet" to hold the gear blank in my 3 jaw chuck. I faced the gears down to the correct thickness then bored out the hubs. I needed to tailor each gear hub to fit the knurled portion of the original gear shafts for an interference fit

When the gears were done, I put the new blanks shafts in the freezer and the shafts new blanks in the oven. After an hour or so I put the gear and shaft on the arbor press an "Presto!" the shaft goes into the gear.

After putting the repaired parts into the head and adjusting the shift forks I now have a working 4 speed milling head again.
Posted by MetroGTi | Jul 21, 2012 @ 10:38 AM | 13,875 Views
I've been building a Love WR-1 (aka Loving's Love) for a friend. I've got the assembly of the framing done. Need to finish sanding and shaping a few areas then I can start covering.

This is the www.ParkScaleModels.com kit that I designed a few years ago.
Posted by MetroGTi | Jan 30, 2012 @ 11:07 PM | 13,911 Views
I just finished this version and am waiting for a chance to maiden it. It's a 1/2 scale version of the Blu-F-O made from 3mm & 1mm Depron. ALW came in at 62gr. I hope it flies as well as the larger version.

Update:
Maidened this little bugger the other day. It was very sensitive in the roll axis and I doinked it because I lost orientation. It was better on the second flight after I dialed the ailerons down to about 70% travel, but I still over corrected and rolled it into the ground. Before the next flight I'm going to taper the elevons a bit so they are a bit narrower at the tips. Hopefully that will lower the roll rate a tad without losing the thrust vector effect at low speed. I'll probably add some color to help with orientation too. Other than that, it has plenty of power and really scoots.
Posted by MetroGTi | Jan 30, 2012 @ 08:23 PM | 14,699 Views
I've been working on this design since last fall. It's loosely inspired by a design called the "Blue_Wonder". A nearby club uses the "Blue Wonder" as an inexpensive, single design, full contact, club combat platform. One of our club members named John has built a couple "Blue Wonders". Another club member named Leo was inspired by the performance of John's Blue Wonder and built a modified "Depron Wonder" from 6mm Depron by adding a fuselage to house the battery and electronics.
Inspired by John and Leo, but wanting a plane with a few more curves, I did a quick little concept sketch. I scanned my sketch and imported it into AutoCAD. I then drew up my first set of plans based on the sketch. It took me a little over a week to build my first protoype, which flew very nicely. The only thing I didn't care for on the prototype were the proportions of the fuselage. So I tweaked the plans a little and built a second version, which I completed in about 10 hours from cutting to flying. The second prototype flew just like the first. I've decided to call my version the "Blu-F-O".

I just did a build thread for this model: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=1655800